
LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) - Queensbridge, New York MC Nas set the House Of Blues stage in Los Angeles ablaze Wednesday (March 27), performing songs from each of his five albums and taking numerous shots at his nemesis Jay-Z, as well as Jay-Z's associates R.
Kelly and Russell Simmons.
Nas's energy was like that of an eager, new rapper as he ripped through snippets of his classics "Life's A Bitch," "It Ain't Hard To Tell," "If I Ruled The World," "You Owe Me," "Hate Me Now," and "Oochie Wally."
But the show reached its climax when Nas attacked Jay-Z. After performing "My Country" and criticizing America for sending young black men to war for "something we don't even understand," Nas's DJ played an accelerated version of Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life." While a hype man ripped up a Jay-Z poster--at which the crowd cheered--Nas also dissed R. Kelly, whose joint album with Jay-Z, Best Of Both Worlds, debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at Number Two this week.
"We ain't touching no little kids on stage," Nas said, referring to Kelly's statutory rape allegations. "It ain't no Best Of Both Worlds." Nas then performed his inflammatory Jay-Z track "Ether," which he wrapped with, "F-ck Russell Simmons," a shocking verbal assault on the Def Jam Records founder.
Earlier, when Nas performed his song "K-I-S-S-I-N-G," he substituted a Sade instrumental track for the R. Kelly "When A Woman's Fed Up" music bed that appears on Nas's 1999 album, I Am...(The Autobiography).
Apparently, defending his street credibility has prompted Nas to have an epiphany regarding his career. "I ain't gone make no more commercial music," the self-proclaimed king said before closing his set with his current single, "One Mic," from his critically acclaimed release Stillmatic.